DOES SMALL DAM REMOVAL AFFECT LOCAL PROPERTY VALUES? AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

This paper uses hedonic analysis to examine the impact of small dam removal on property values in south-central Wisconsin. Data on residential property sales were obtained for three categories of sites: those where a small dam remains intact, those where a small dam was removed, and those where a river or stream has been free-flowing for at least 20 yr. The primary conclusions that emerge from the data are that shoreline frontage along small impoundments confers no increase in residential property value compared to frontage along free-flowing streams and that nonfrontage residential property located in the vicinity of a free-flowing stream is more valuable than similar nonfrontage property in the vicinity of a small impoundment. ( JEL Q2, Q25, Q5, Q51)     

The Vanishing Free Market: The Formation and Spread of the British and US Food Regimes

In this paper, I compare the formation of food regimes during British and US hegemony, which were mirror-images in terms of the degree of free trade and state regulation as well as the direction of trade flow of grains. Many scholars recognize that the foundation for each regime was laid by the national policy and dominant political coalition in the world-economic hegemon, but my analysis pays particular attention to the divisions and coalitions within agriculture as forces that drove the shape of each regime. Though important agricultural divisions existed in each case, the political power of the resulting agricultural coalitions – and those coalitions' relations to the nation's dominant coalition – are central to understanding the formation and spread of each food regime.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Mark A. Lause, Young America: Land, Labor, and the Republican Community.
Jesse C. Ribot, Waiting for Democracy: The Politics of Choice in Natural Resource Decentralisation.
Jesse C. Ribot and Anne M. Larson (eds.), Democratic Decentralisation through a Natural Resource Lens.
David Keen, Conflict and Collusion in Sierra Leone.
Costas Lapavitsas, Social Foundations of Markets, Money and Credit.
Ricardo Salvatore, Wandering Paysanos: State Order and Subaltern Experience in Buenos Aires during the Rosas Era.
Colin Murray and Peter Sanders, Medicine Murder in Colonial Lesotho: The Anatomy of a Moral Crisis.     

Economic Viewpoint

The search for a policy device which will yield the benefits of monetary discipline without the pain is as old as it is fruitless, and the central message of this Economic Viewpoint is that going into the EMS will not provide a magic answer to our problems. However we believe that if we go into the EMS at today's rate, and pursue monetary policies consistent with maintaining that rate, the authorities' target of 3 per cent inflation by 1988 is well within reach… Our analysis of the experience of other countries, inside and outside the EMS, over the floating rate period suggests that membership of the EMS should also reduce exchange rate fluctuations and help to create a more stable environment for business planning. However, sterling's vulnerability to oil-related fluctuations cannot be eliminated just by joining the EMS. We therefore suggest that an oil bond, which capitalises the value of our North Sea assets, is created and sold to our EMS partners, thus equalising the exposure to fluctuations in oil prices and removing one major cause of exchange rate instability.     

澳洲向中国成功商业人士敞开移民大门

近年来中国经济不断开放并融入世界经济体系,越来越多的中国企业将国际市场作为发展的广阔舞台。近期中国人民银行放宽对移民资产转移管制的政策,使中国成功商业人士走出国门更加便捷。随着澳洲经济的强势发展,澳大利亚成为越来越多寻求海外发展的成功人士移民和投资的首选。